1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automatic accompaniment apparatus, particularly to automatic accompaniment apparatus having an automatic accompaniment function of various insert patterns such as an introduction pattern, a fill-in pattern, and an ending pattern, in addition to a basic pattern.
2. Description of the Related Art
Normally, an automatic accompaniment apparatus of an electronic musical instrument obtains accompaniment tones on the basis of accompaniment pattern data prepared in advance. Some conventional automatic accompaniment apparatus have a function capable of inserting various patterns such as an introduction pattern, a fill-in pattern, and an ending pattern, in addition to a basic pattern as accompaniment pattern data. Also, some other apparatus can provide variations of a basic pattern, and can individually mute, e.g., a drum part, a bass part, a chord part, etc., in each variation pattern.
More specifically, an automatic accompaniment apparatus of this type has operation members for respectively muting drum, bass, and chord parts in the basic pattern, and can individually set the individual part in a tone generation or mute state. Also, upon playing the basic pattern in which mute setup states are set by these operation members in units of parts, accompaniment tones can be produced in various expressions by designating an introduction pattern, a fill-in pattern, an ending pattern, etc.
However, in the conventional automatic accompaniment apparatus, even when a mute state is set for a given part in a certain variation pattern, if a pattern such as an introduction pattern, a fill-in pattern, an ending pattern, is inserted in such a state, the mute setup of the variation pattern is not reflected in the play of such an insert pattern, and preset accompaniment pattern data are played.
For this reason, even though drum tones are muted and not produced while playing a variation pattern, drum tones begin to be produced as soon as a pattern such as a fill-in pattern is inserted. Upon completion of the play of a fill-in pattern, the variation pattern restarts to mute drum tones, thus disturbing a natural play.